First Welcome back to The Brief. We hope that all property owners will be better informed on local issues of interest and concern.
ESCAFCA is On your 2025 Tax Bill, but Off of your 2026 Tax Bill
The Eastern Sandoval County Arroyo Flood Control Authority, ESCAFCA passed a Resolution on 5/26/2026 to officially remove Placitas and a portion of Algodones East of I-25 from further taxation.
Placitas was removed from ESCAFCA in 2011 by the NM Legislature FOR CAUSE, Following a lengthy campaign by Placitas and East Algodones residents.
As a condition for this removal, Placitas was obliged to continue paying off the ESCAFCA debt bonds that had been approved by voters in 2008. The total of these bond payments, including interest was approximately 7.1 million dollars of which the Placitas share was roughly 72%. This debt was fully paid off and retired in July of 2023. At which point ESCAFCA taxes on Placitas should have ceased, but in fact such taxes continued to be charged on our Tax Bills issued in November 2023 and subsequently on our tax bills for 2024 and 2025. In other words, Placitas property owners have been improperly billed for taxes not owed to ESCAFCA since 2023 and before. Further, there is evidence that ESCAFCA’s tax rates prior to the 2023 payoff were set higher than needed to cover the bond payments. It’s a long story but this is the brief.
Thanks to the efforts of community members the Eastern Sandoval-Citizens Association, ES CA hired an attorney to seek redress. The first task ending further ESCAFCA taxes on Placitas has been accomplished; the second getting restitution for roughly $900,000 in illegitimate taxes, should now be pursued. This second objective may be hard to achieve, considering it has taken over a year just to get the improper taxation stopped.
ES-CA can be reached www.ES-CA.org
Stay informed and involved and become a voting member of the Ranchos de Placitas Property Owners Association.
Mike Neas and Steve Barro
Unit 7